Student Water Data Visualization Competition Winners Announced

January 6, 2020 — Utah Water Research Laboratory faculty member Dr. Jeff Horsburgh, Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Utah State University, recently issued his 2^nd challenge to USU students called the Cyberinfrastructure for Intelligent Water Supply (CIWS) Data Visualization Challenge. The goal was to have students develop visualizations of high-resolution water use data focused on developing new approaches for providing visual feedback directly to residential water users about their own water use.

The competition kicked off on October 21, 2020 and ended on November 25, 2020. The challenge culminated with an awards event on December 12^th where students presented their challenge entries and competed for prizes. The following USU students were recognized for their efforts:

• First Place-$1,000: Amber Jones, Ph.D. Candidate in Civil and Environmental Engineering
• Second Place- $750: John Akagi, Ph.D. Candidate in Aerospace Engineering
• Third Place-$500: Nathan Guymon, MS student in Biological Engineering

Runners Up- $100 Each:

• Jesse Rowles – MS student in Civil and Environmental Engineering
• Tyler Daynes – MS student in Civil and Environmental Engineering
• Andres Duque Correa – Ph.D. Candidate in Statistics

Amber Jones, the first prize winner of the competition, studies Water Resources Engineering at USU and is a graduate student at the Utah Water Research Laboratory. Her challenge entry focused on how visualizations from smart sensors and associated algorithms can help users understand not only the quantity of water used, but also how and when the water is used. Amber’s project highlighted the differences in indoor and outdoor water usage, as well as conservation opportunities for both areas.

Results of this year’s challenge, and the previous 2018-2019 Visualization Challenge, can be viewed in the challenge GitHub repository.

###

Contact: Jeff Horsburgh | jeff.horsburgh@usu.edu